The Barcelona Principles are a voluntary set of guidelines for measuring public relations and communication, first agreed by practitioners convened by AMEC in Barcelona in 2010 and updated in 2015 and 2020. Every version rejects advertising value equivalency as a measure of communication's worth.
The Barcelona Principles emerged when the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, known as AMEC, convened public relations practitioners from many countries in Barcelona, Spain, in 2010 to establish voluntary measurement guidelines for the profession. That original version set out seven foundational principles for how communication should be evaluated.
The framework has been revised twice since. A 2015 update, often called Barcelona Principles 2.0, reframed the guidance to emphasize what practitioners should do rather than only what to avoid, and a 2020 update, Barcelona Principles 3.0, extended the guidance to a broader range of organizational types, including government bodies, nonprofits and NGOs, while addressing themes of inclusion and impact more directly.
Every version consistently rejects advertising value equivalency, a method that estimates a monetary value for earned media coverage by pricing it as if it were paid advertising space. The principles instead push toward outcome-based measurement, considering real business or organizational outcomes, combining qualitative and quantitative analysis, and including social media measurement rather than relying on any single output metric.
How to apply this: 1) Do not report advertising value equivalency figures as a measure of PR success, since the Barcelona Principles specifically reject this method. 2) Define outcomes relevant to the actual goal of a campaign, not just output counts like the number of releases sent. 3) Combine qualitative assessment of coverage quality with quantitative counts. 4) Include social media measurement alongside traditional media coverage in any evaluation.
QUESTIONS
What are the Barcelona Principles?
They are a voluntary set of measurement guidelines for public relations and communication, first agreed by practitioners convened by AMEC in Barcelona in 2010, and updated in 2015 and 2020 to reflect changes in communication practice.
Do the Barcelona Principles support advertising value equivalency?
No. Every version of the principles explicitly rejects advertising value equivalency as a way to measure the value of communication, arguing that pricing earned coverage as if it were paid advertising space misrepresents its worth.
What changed in the 2020 update?
The 2020 update, known as Barcelona Principles 3.0, broadened the framework's applicability beyond public relations specifically to government, nonprofit and NGO communication, while placing more emphasis on inclusion and organizational impact.
Who created the Barcelona Principles?
The International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, AMEC, convened the practitioners from 33 countries who agreed the original 2010 framework in Barcelona, Spain.
SOURCES
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